Despite the rigorous and intense training maneuvers, the Fourth Divison was given the rest it deserved after a victorious and hard-fought show of strength and courage on Roi-Namur.  There were baseball games, USO shows, day liberties to Honolulu and a number of other activities that allowed them, if for even a moment, to forget they were involved in war that encompassed the world.

The visit to Maui did not last forever, though.  On May 10, 1944, the Division embarked on a month long journey including additional training maneuvers at sea and briefings on the upcoming objective before they reached the second stepping stone in the drive through the islands of the Pacific.  A little over three months after the battle in the Kwajalein Atoll, the Fourth Division arrived in the waters of Saipan, confronted with a challenge that far outweighed the one faced in the Marshalls.

Saipan, part of Japan’s inner empire, laid only 1485 miles from Tokyo, well within the range of a B-29’s bombing run.  If the United States could conquer the enemy and gain control of the island, it would not only have a base of operations within striking distance to the Japanese mainland, but it would also cut communication and supply lines between Japan and its forces in the Southwest Pacific.  Moreover, the island was home to the Japanese Central Pacific Fleet, its Thirty-first Army and the Northern Marianas Defense Force (Proehl).  Saipan was an island the United States had to have.

Due to the island’s strategic importance, no chances were taken in preparation for securing Saipan’s status as an American holding.  The largest attack force ever assembled for a Pacific island battle was sent to the Marianas Islands, including over 165,600 troops – both attack and garrison forces – all under Marine command, and no less than 800 ships, from giant battleships to carriers to minesweepers.  Of those 165,000 plus troops, 21,618 belonged solely to the Fourth Division (Proehl).

The importance of the island was not the only factor that called for such a massive attack force.  Compared to Roi-Namur, Saipan was enormous; it measured roughly thirteen miles long and five and a half miles wide with rugged terrain, sharp ridges, flat cane fields, fissure-like valleys and a number of caves, which would prove to serve as an advantageous defensive position for Japanese troops.  With ten times the number of enemy troops stationed on Roi-Namur, Saipan’s 30,000 soldiers were a component of the most highly developed system of defensive strongholds that the Marines had previously encountered in the Pacific Campaign (Proehl).

The plan of attack for Saipan called for the Second and Fourth Divisions to land abreast of one another along the 4000-yard stretch of beach, with Charan-Kanoa, a city located along the coast line on the southern part of the island, serving as the dividing line between the two divisions.  While the landings were taking place, the Twenty-fourth Marines would stage a diversionary demonstration in the waters off the northern end of the island, then hold its position and wait to go ashore as a Reserve Regiment (Proehl).

When the landings took place at 8:40 on the morning of June 15, 1944, 4000 Fourth Division Marines went ashore in less than twenty minutes, facing a virtually undefended beach.  With the aid of armored amphtracs of the US Army 708th Armored Amphtrac Battalion, the Marines were able to reach their initial objective: a ridgeline that ran parallel to the shore approximately a mile inland.  The amphibious blitzkrieg caught the Japanese forces entirely off guard and posed little threat to the initial wave of troops. However, the Japanese forces would not make the same mistake twice.   Artillery, mortars and antiboat guns awaited the waves of troops that followed the initial 4000 Marines, creating numerous problems and producing countless casualties (Proehl).

The First Battalion, Twenty-third Marines occupied the town of Charan-Kanoa after Third Battalion passed through, but suffered heavy casualties when the Japanese launched a volley of shells into the area, striking with terrifying accuracy.  The pier nearby was set ablaze and denied the Marines the ability to unload troops or supplies.  Using the terrain in its favor, the enemy merely waited for the Marines to stumble into one of its defensive position, then attacked with ferocity and deadly accuracy.  After the Third Battalion passed through Charan-Kanoa, they were met with a point-blank assault by Japanese forces.  On the beaches, the evidence of the enemy hostility was displayed in dramatic fashion: a proliferation of wrecked tanks, burning amphtracs and dead Marines littered the sands of Saipan (Proehl).

By nightfall, the fighting waged at the same intensity it had maintained during the day, although the Marines had gained a crucial advantage.  The illumination from the star shells fired by the Navy ships surrounding Saipan allowed the troops to spot Japanese advancements and respond before the night attack units could inflict severe damage.  The first night on Saipan was sleepless for many of the Marines keeping cover in their irregular lines of foxholes.  They had forced a precarious beachhead in the face of bitter enemy fire, and everyone knew a long, arduous battle awaited (Chapin).

When the Twenty-fourth Marines drove inland, its objective was the Aslito airfield on the extreme southern portion of the island.  With the 165th Infantry, the Army’s Twenty-seventh Infantry Division, on its right flank and the Twenty-fourth to its left, the Twenty-fifth Marines were poised on the north edge of the Aslito airfield in the later part of the day on June 17.  Although the area was abandoned, the 165th, assigned to capture it, waited until the third day to do so (Chapin).

It was on the 17th of June that Phil sustained a gunshot wound to his arm, and as a result, he was transferred to a medical ship off the coast of Saipan.   According to Mr. Ralston, who was approximately six or seven feet away from him when he was shot, they were pinned down on a forward slope.  Although he could see the sniper, it was too late, and the bullet ricocheted off of Phil’s rifle and struck him in the arm (Ralston).  That injury was the end of Phil’s involvement in the Battle for Saipan and it also kept him out of the Battle for Tinian, which the Marines engaged in only a couple weeks after Saipan was declared secure (Proehl). To see newspaper clippings and additional information regarding Phil’s injuries... Click Here.

By June 18, the southeastern segment of the island was almost cut off, and the Fourth Division was in a position to sweep northward up the eastern half of Saipan while the other divisions conquered the western half. Slowly, the Division made its way up the eastern coastline, encountering attacks involving hand-to-hand combat and new opposition: civilians.  During the onslaught of bombing on the island, its inhabitants had fled from their homes and taken refuge in the myriad caves that honeycombed the island (Proehl).  After sundown, the sound of babies crying from the caves was deafening; it pierced the silence of the night and left many Marines longing for a peaceful night's rest (Ralston).